The subject house where it was stopped onPrairie Avenue just south of Twenty-first Street

The landmark Harriet F. Rees house, designed by Cobb & Frost, was built
at 2110 S. Prairie Avenue in 1888. Later
this month, plans call for lifting the four-story masonry structure off of its
original foundation and relocating it one block to the north where a new
foundation will be prepared at 2017 S. Prairie Avenue. All of this is being done in preparation for
construction of the new DePaul Arena which will occupy the entire block on
which the house currently sits.

Although the idea of moving a house is intimidating, the practice was
actually quite common in the late 19th century. In 1891, another house was moved along the
2100 block of Prairie Avenue and the episode created quite a stir amongst the
residents at the time. The long
forgotten controversy is recorded for posterity in two articles published in
the Chicago Tribune that year.

On September 14, 1891, the Tribune
reported the situation in an article entitled “Prairie Avenue Residents Up In
Arms – A House-Mover’s Disrespect for Stately Old Elm Trees.” In this particular situation, Prairie Avenue
was merely being used as the route between the original site of the house on
Michigan Avenue and its new site at 46th Street and Indiana
Avenue. The article read:

“A dilapidated wreck
of an old frame house completely blockades Prairie avenue, so far as traffic
concerned, just south of Twenty-first street.
It has been standing there, covered with dirt and cobwebs, a very beggar
of a house among the handsome residences of John B. Sherman, P. D. Armour,
Eugene S. Pike, R. W. Roloson, M. M. Rothschild, and Mrs. E. J. Kimball, for
the last three days. It would have been
out of this neighborhood long ago, but Mr. Armour, Mr. Pike, et al. will not
permit it. Not that they admire the old
hulk, but they do not desire to have the stately old elms in front of their
homes ruined.

“It had hardly passed
Twenty-first street before a number of branches of the trees in front of Mr.
Pike’s residence, No. 2101 Prairie Avenue, were broken off. It is still jammed hard against the limb of
another of Mr. Pike’s trees, where it was stopped by order of the Street
Department in response to angry remonstrances of Phillip D. Armour of No.
2115. Mr. Armour didn’t want to have his
trees torn down by the building and he called on Commissioner Aldrich to
protest against the further progress of the house in that direction. Superintendent of Street Obstructions Bell
ordered the house-mover to take the house down Twenty-first street to some
street where it will cause less trouble.

“The building is
owned by Tim Keefe, and was being taken from No. 1833 Michigan avenue by
Building Mover William Kruger. The
permit was issued Aug. 15 to expire Aug. 31 and he did not secure its renewal
until Sept. 11, a day after the injury to Mr. Pike’s trees was done. The permit was for a house twenty-two feet
wide, but one of the residents of the avenue who went to the trouble of
measuring the building found that it is twenty-nine feet four inches wide,
while the street is but thirty-two feet from curb to curb.

“’The City of
Chicago,’ he declared, ‘had grown so large that we should no longer permit the
removal of frame buildings over our streets.’”

This photograph shows where the house was stopped during its move. Shown from left to right are the houses of
Max Rothschild (2112), Harriet Rees (2110), Mark Kimball (2108), John B. Sherman
(2100) and Ebenezer Buckingham (2036). The
image dates to the early 1890s, so may well show the trees after they were
damaged by the house move.

Troubles continued for Mr. Keefe, the owner of the house in question, as
indicated by a second article entitled “Objects to Official Interference” which
appeared six weeks later on October 27, 1891:

“Thomas H. Keefe
bought a frame house at No. 1833 Michigan avenue, and hired William Kruger, a
house mover, to transfer the building to Forty-sixth street and Indiana
avenue. The Street Department gave
permission to move the house along Prairie avenue, but at Twenty-sixth street
objections were made, and the building was turned back and sent down a side
street. Since then Keefe says progress
has been stopped every few blocks by either the police or other city officers,
and the building now blocks traffic on Forty-sixth street within a stone’s
throw of its destination. Yesterday
Keefe and Kruger went into the Superior Court and sought to restrain further
interference by asking an injunction against J. Frank Aldrich, Hempstead
Washburne, Richard W. McClaughry, Nicholas Hunt, James E. Burke, and the city.”

No further information appears in the Tribune about the house, but presumably it was soon after moved the
last few feet to its new location on Indiana Avenue, and the matter was finally
put to rest.